Wagering games based on the outcome of randomly generated or selected symbols are well known. Such games are widely played in gambling casinos and include card games wherein the symbols may be the usual, common playing cards. Card games such as black jack, Pai Gow poker, Caribbean Stud.TM. poker and others are excellent card games for use in casinos. Desirable attributes of casino card games are that they are exciting, that they can be learned and understood easily by players, and that they move or can be played rapidly to their wager-resolving outcome.
The desired attributes of wagering card games, particularly for those being used in casinos, have lead to the development of electromechanical or mechanical card shuffling devices. Such devices increase the speed of shuffling and dealing, thereby increasing playing time, adding to the excitement of the game while reducing the time the dealer or house has to spend in preparing to play a game.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,513,969 (to Samsel, Jr.) and 4,515,367 (to Howard) disclose automatic card shufflers. The Samsel, Jr. patent discloses the use of microphotosensors to detect the presence or absence of a card or cards while shuffling is proceeding. For example, when a photosensor detects the absence of a card in a dispensing compartment, a signal is transmitted to a timer circuit which then causes the energization of a solenoid to extract a card from a storage compartment. The Howard patent discloses the use of a lamp (or LED) that directs light toward a light sensitive element, whereby the light rays are blocked when a stack of cards reaches a particular height. The blockage or non-blockage of the light either energizes or turns off components of the machine to deliver cards from one portion of the machine to another. Neither of the Samsel, Jr. or Howard patents discloses a jammed shuffle detecting feature.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,712 (to Lorber, et al.) discloses an automatic shuffling apparatus directed toward reducing the dead time generated when a casino dealer manually has to shuffle multiple decks of playing cards. The Lorber, et al. apparatus has a container, a storage device for storing shuffled playing cards, a removing device and an inserting device for intermixing the playing cards in the container, a dealing shoe and supplying means for supplying the shuffled playing cards from the storage device to the dealing shoe. The apparatus is designed to intermix discarded playing cards into undealt decks under the program control of a computer, and includes a card jam light indicator for monitoring the passage, i.e., the presence or absence, of cards in various portions of the machine. If various photocells don't detect the passage of a card, the card jam light is automatically or manually lit and an error procedure is undertaken. The error procedure involves manually removing a jammed card and/or verifying a no error status by undertaking a microcomputer check of the status of spaces in the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,884 (issued to John G. Breeding, the inventor of the present invention, and commonly owned) discloses an apparatus for automatically shuffling a deck of cards. The device includes a deck stacking zone, a carriage section for separating a deck into two portions, a sloped mechanism positioned between adjacent corners of the separated deck, and an apparatus for snapping the cards over the sloped mechanism thereby interleaving the cards. The Breeding patent is directed to providing a mechanized card shuffler whereby a deck may be shuffled often and yet the dealer still has adequate time to operate the game. Additionally, the Breeding shuffling device is directed to reducing the chance that cards become marked as they are shuffled and to keeping the cards in view constantly while they are being shuffled.
Although the Breeding card shuffling device provides a significant improvement in card shuffling devices, one unaddressed problem is that as the cards are interleaved, the interleaving edges may abut and become steepled or jammed. Jamming may occur more frequently if the cards are shuffled, handled by players, and reshuffled many times as is the case with cards used in casino gambling.
Accordingly, there is a need for a simple, durable, efficient means to monitor the shuffling procedure in a card shuffling device and, if a jam or error situation is detected, to signal the device to undertake automatic jam-correcting measures.